Tarkov Ballistics

Let's try to explore what is the core of Tarkov.

The hamsterwheel
The basic gameplay can be coarsely divided into two stages. Raid and stash. The events from one stage affect the next stage.


If we further divide the raid into its particles we have gunfighting and looting. I think the developers lately put too much focus on the looting and neglected gunfighting. But that is a post for another time.

You guess which part of the game.
Gunfighting If asked what the most exciting part of the game is for you, what would you answer? For me, it is the gunfighting. Looting, equipping gear, all the other things are fun supporting parts, but the core is the gunbattle. If you could narrow it down to what part of the gun battle you would find the most exciting to a second, what would it be?
For me, it's when the shooting starts.

This is when the rush, or the emotional high kicks in. The excitement of the fight is influenced by the risk involved. The winner gets the gear the loser was carryin…

EFT for me is the flight simulator among fps games. The first fps game that offers uncompromising realism. The flight simulator comparison I relate to DCS (Digital Combat Simulator), which is a flight sim game with hard realism. A cockpit simulator where you have to flip every switch like in the real plane or helicopter. In that game, every subsystem is made realistic, beyond any gameplay or balance concern. Realism is the baseline that is never crossed.



Cockpit of an F-5E in DCS.
The term "fun vs realism" is not applied in DCS. One of the contractors, Belstimtek, which is a 3rd party developing modules for DCS, has the following advertisment on their website:

Enchant by realism.
Eagle Dynamics, the creator of DCS is a russian company. Belsimtek is Belorussian. The reason I mention this is that it appears the russian gaming market embraces complex realism more than western markets. There has been a long standing series of games from different companies that  made realism a ve…

Let's talk about armor.

The game features two different armor types currently, helmets and armor vests. Armor vests protect the chest and stomach, while the 6b43 armor vest also extends protection to the arms. The body parts protected can be verified by mouse over pointing over "armor zones"

6b43 protects the arms, not just the center of mass.
Helmets protect only the parts of the head that they physically cover. This is a new addition for 0.8.

Note that the different attachment armor parts also provide different protection levels. The visor armor class is 4 on the Altyn helmet, while the helmet itself is class 5.

Armor Damage When a bullet strikes a piece of armor, several things are considered by the game: CaliberAmmo TypeArmor
Tarkov Ballistics sheet for the 5.45 ( link )

Caliber The first consideration is the caliber. This is the diameter of the bullet, designated in milimeters, like for the 5.34x39mm. Other designations are .366, which means 0.366 inches and transla…